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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2019; 40(04): 507-509
DOI: 10.4103/ijmpo.ijmpo_120_18
Original Article

Radiotherapy in Children without Anesthesia: A Feasibility Approach Using Distraction

Aswin Anapathoor Nagarajan
Departments of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
,
Venkatraman Radhakrishnan
Departments of Medical Oncology, Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
,
Selvaluxmy Ganesharajah
Departments of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
› Author Affiliations Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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Abstract

Context: Radiotherapy is an important component of treatment of children with cancer. However, delivery of radiotherapy to children is challenging because of the requirement of sedation or anesthesia for immobilization. The present study attempts to highlight our experience of successful delivery of radiotherapy to children with cancer without the use of sedation or anesthesia. Subjects and Methods: The study included pediatric patients <12 years who were treated with radiotherapy at our center between January 2015 and June 2017. Retrospective analysis of patient case records was performed to obtain the treatment details. Results: During the study, 50 children received radiotherapy, among them, 44 (88%) were treated without sedation or anesthesia. The most common diagnosis was acute lymphoblastic leukemia (25%) followed by Ewing’s sarcoma (16%) and rhabdomyosarcoma (14%). About 56% of the children belonged to the age group of 1–5 years and 44% belonged to 6–12 years. The latter age group were cooperative and completed the treatment without anxiety. Although the children belonging to 1–5 years age group had anxiety in the commencement of treatment, they completed it without anesthesia, using distraction techniques. There were no treatment delays or physical trauma sustained due to nonusage of sedation or anesthesia. Conclusions: The study shows that with adequate counseling and use of distraction techniques it is possible to deliver radiotherapy to children without the requirement of anesthesia. This practice will be useful for settings were the availability of staff and equipment for anesthesia is limited.

Keywords

Anesthesia - chemotherapy - distraction techniques - pediatric - radiotherapy


Publication History

Received: 20 May 2018

Accepted: 21 June 2018

Article published online:
03 June 2021

© 2020. Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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